Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Saturday, May 12, 2018

More Racial Ugliness: Breaking Up Immigrant Families

During his campaign and since occupying the White House, one of the pillars of Donald Trump's policies has been racism and prejudice aimed at non-whites and non-Christians. Things once thought beneath America are now the norm. And Trump's evangelical Christian base relishes in the reprehensible, proving to me yet again that there are few segments of American society more morally bankrupt than "conservative Christians." Nowhere is this targeting of non-whites more cruel than in the case of the Trump/Sessions policy - I'm sure Mike Pence is applauding from the sidelines - of separating immigrants seeking asylum from their children. What would be considered horrible and certainly raise an outcry if done to lily white families, is seemingly just fine by Der Trumpenführer and his "godly folk" supporters. Indeed, he/they seem to view immigrants and their families much as Hitler viewed Jews. Many of those being subjected to this family destroying policy come from Honduras (my own mother's birthplace) and El Salvador, the basket cases of the Western Hemisphere, and have good reason to be fleeing and seeking asylum. Their real crime: brown skin. A piece in the New York Times looks at this vicious policy. Here are excerpts:

Ramping
up a promised “zero tolerance” immigration policy on the Southwest border, the
Justice Department said that 11 members of a caravan of migrants from Central
America were being criminally prosecuted for crossing the border illegally.

At
least four of those facing criminal charges had children taken from them and
placed into separate custody, lawyers for the migrants said, highlighting one
of the most contentious aspects of the Trump administration’s new border
policies: family separations.

Hundreds
of immigrant children have already been separated from their parents at the border since
October, and the new policy calling for criminal prosecutions of
all those who cross illegally promises to increase that number drastically.

President
Trump and his aides at the White House have pushed a family separation policy
in order to deter Central American families from trying to cross the border
illegally, according to administration officials.

The
new policy on criminal prosecutions became official on Monday when Attorney
General Jeff Sessions visited Arizona and California.

With
few exceptions, the United States has historically treated immigration
violations as civil, rather than criminal, offenses, and thus parents have not
typically been separated from their children when they enter the legal system.

“This
is an additional punitive measure the administration is imposing on parents in
an effort to frighten Central Americans, to discourage them from seeking
asylum,” said Reuben Cahn, executive director of the Federal Defenders of San
Diego, who is representing several of the caravan migrants.

Mr.
Sessions said his department would criminally prosecute everyone who illegally
enters the United States. If a mother or father is with a child when
apprehended for the crime of illegal entry, the minor must be taken from the
parent. The child cannot remain with a parent in the criminal court system.

The
majority of apprehended migrants hail from Honduras and El Salvador, two
countries wracked by violence. Children are often targeted for recruitment by
gangs, and their families seek safe haven in the United States.Nearly 80,000 people came as members of
family units between October, the beginning of the current fiscal year, and
April. About 14,000 came in March; about 15,000 in April.

[F]amily
separations began after Mr. Trump took office pledging to crack down on illegal
immigration, though a very small number occurred during previous
administrations. The practice gained
momentum in the last two months, particularly in Texas, where many families
from Central America seek to cross, they say.

The
American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a nationwide injunction against the
practice. The organization argues in its lawsuit that it is a violation of due
process to separate parents and children simply as a means to deter illegal
immigration. Only parents who are abusive or unfit to care for their children
can legally have them taken away, the suit argues. . . . . the A.C.L.U. accused
the Homeland Security Department of unlawfully separating a Congolese woman and
her 7-year-old daughter who had sought asylum.

Another
plaintiff — a Brazilian woman who crossed with her 14-year-old son and asked
for asylum — was prosecuted for the misdemeanor of illegal entry. She received
25 days of jail time in Texas; her son was sent to the Chicago facility. They
were not reunited even after the mother returned to immigration custody. They
have been apart for seven months.

The
government has acknowledged that about 700 children have been separated from
their parents since October 1. But that number appears to be increasing.

Studies
have shown that children who are separated from their parents can suffer from
anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as exhibit behavioral
problems and poor educational outcomes.

In
an affidavit attached to the A.C.L.U. lawsuit, the heads of the American
Academy of Pediatrics and the Child Welfare League of America, among others,
strongly urged the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, not to break
up families.

“Separation
from family leaves children more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, no
matter what the care setting. In addition, traumatic separation from parents
creates toxic stress in children and adolescents that can profoundly impact
their development,” they said.

Some
abuses have been documented. Beginning in 2013, minors were fraudulently
plucked from shelters by men who posed as friends or family, promised to
provide them shelter and transport them to their immigration court hearings,
then made them work on egg farms in Ohio.

Imagine the terror suffered by these children. With young grandchildren of my own, I cannot imagine how much such an experience would harm them. If you support Trump, you support this policy, plain and simple. And if you then park your ass in a church pew each week and feign piety, you are truly far more despicable than the Pharisees of the New Testament. You are, indeed, a morally bankrupt monster.

1 comment:

Well, after Charlottesville Degenerate Don declared the GOP now the Party of Jefferson Davis and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Last week Eddie Munster annointed it as the Party of the Anti-Christ. So now Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and John Kelly announced that they want to stage re-enactments. though not to the same extreme, of the Massacre of the Innocents.

But it's nice to see that Traitor Trump is so concerned about the impact of sanctions on jobs. It's just too bad that the jobs he cares about are in China.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
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